Recording apparatus of the automatic balancing type for striking dots on a fanfold chart have heretofore been widely used to record the magnitudes of a plurality of analog input signals. An example of a multiple-color recording apparatus of this type which records on a sheet of recording paper the various analog signals as a pattern of dots and also records characters, symbols, and the like relating to the analog recording as a pattern of dots of desired colors, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,338, issued Feb. 21, 1984. Likewise, similar apparatus is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,672. In the former patent there is shown a display unit forming part of a panel P which also includes a keyboard. As will be appreciated from that patent, a limited number of display elements are available for displaying date, hour, range, and alarm settings, as well as a number of switches for setting various parameters and for setting recording modes and the like.